Reversing Lyme Disease and Building Auto-Immunity with The Gonzalez Protocol by Dr. Marina Yanover
Presenting Gonzalez Guardian Doctor, Marina Yanover N.D. who utilizes The Gonzalez Protocol‘s individualized nutritional enzyme treatments for all types of autoimmune conditions. Officially certified in Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez’s specialized approach, Dr. Yanover explains how and why The Gonzalez Protocol® which is more commonly known for treating cancer, is so effective for these other illnesses. She will offer examples of her own patients including those with Lyme disease, Scleroderma, Lupus and Psoriasis. Event will be recorded and available to registrants for 7 days.
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome in Infections & Mold Toxicity
Updated 1/8/24 with a new video and new information on
KPV peptide and
low dose naltrexone.
What is Mast Cell Activation Syndrome?
Are you reacting to a lot of things that you eat or take for your infections or toxicity? Are your environmental sensitivities or allergies getting worse? It could be Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS).
Mast cells are immune system cells found throughout the body. In the past, in medicine we thought they were only turned on to release histamines in allergic reactions. However we now know that they are turned on by a host of things like:
Lyme and other tick-borne infections,
Covid-19,
mold toxicity,
intestinal yeast overgrowth,
things that trigger allergies called allergens,
inflammation chemicals called cytokines,
drugs,
molds and fungae,
proteins,
toxins,
stress through an adrenal gland stimulating chemical called corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH),
Two recent studies provide further evidence for the ancient maxim “Let food be thy medicine.” It’s time for Congress to take concrete steps towards recognizing the truth in those words. Action Alert!
The studies, one from Tufts University and a second from the Public Health Institute(PHI), found substantial health and economic benefits from using food to both treat and prevent chronic disease. Shhh….don’t tell the FDA though, because the agency follows the letter of the law, and the law says if you talk publicly about the simple notion of using a food product as a medicine, that turns it into a drug! (Cherry and walnut growers found that out the hard way a few years back.) These results, added to the pile of evidence that has accrued over the years, are further justification for Congress to formally recognize that food is medicine and to expand consumer access to those kinds of healthcare options.
The studies looked at the effects of medically tailored meals (MTMs) and produce prescription programs to address diabetes and a host of other chronic diseases. MTMs are fully prepared, healthy meals for individuals living with conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, end-stage kidney disease, HIV infection, and cancer. Produce prescription programs provide discounted or free produce through electronic benefit cards or paper vouchers redeemable at grocery stores or farmers markets.
The Tufts study estimated that national implementation of MTMs could avert 1.6 million hospitalizations and save $13.6 billion in health care costs in the first year alone. Produce prescription programs, the authors found, could avert 292,000 cardiovascular events.
The PHI study, of its Healthy Food Rx project, similarly found that diabetic patients taking part in their produce prescription program reported statistically significant improvements in hemoglobin A1C and diabetes self-management activities. These included more physical activity, following a meal plan, and going to nutrition and diabetes management classes.
Consider the following from the Tufts report:
Poor nutrition is the leading driver of death and disability in the United States, including from heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and some cancers, and has staggering costs to society. The economic costs of suboptimal diets due to health care spending and lost productivity are estimated at $1.1 trillion each year — equaling the economic output of the entire food sector… Today, 1 in 2 U.S. adults has diabetes or prediabetes, 3 in 4 [are overweight or obese], and 14 in 15 have suboptimal cardiometabolic health.
Translation: The wrong kind of food kills, the right kind of food is medicine! It’s a notion that’s integral to our DNA here at ANH, and we’re deeply concerned that the legal basis that determines what is a food and what is a drug is not fit for purpose. Over the last 70 or so years, the drug companies have stitched up legislation to make the scope of the definition so broad, it catches any product that helps prevent, mitigate, or treat disease. This gives the FDA, with its revolving doors with Big Pharma, carte blanche to go after any food product that makes a medicinal or drug claim, even if the science demonstrating this is indisputable. Aswe’veseen, the agency is openly hostile to food-based medicines that we know work but haven’t had the millions it takes to go through FDA approval.
Some in Congress fortunately recognize that getting healthy food and supplements into the hands of Americans is something worth doing. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) has reintroduced legislation to allow dietary supplements to be purchased with Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA), and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA).
HSAs allow consumers to pay for current health care expenses and save for future expenses. They offer a number of advantages. First, HSA contributions are tax-deductible. Second, the interest earned on money in the account is tax-free. Third, tax-free withdrawals can be made for qualified medical expenses. HSAs are also a good way to put money aside for health expenses later in life, when these costs may increase. A Flexible Spending Account is a benefit that allows you to set aside money from your paycheck, pre-tax, to pay for healthcare expenses. An HRA is a type of HSA that is provided and owned by an employer.
Allowing HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs to cover the cost of dietary supplements will expand consumer access to products that can make us healthier. It is a small step toward a wider recognition among policymakers that food is medicine, and we’ve already started thinking seriously about how we might be able to initiate reforms to legislation and policy that are in line with the increasingly widely accepted notion that food is the cheapest, most effective and most accessible medicine available — bar none.
Action Alert! Write to Congress in support of expanded HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs. Please send your message immediately. (Go to top link)
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**Comment**
This is a crucial issue for everyone, but particularly sick Lyme/MSIDS patients.
Effort is being made at every level to corrupt our food. For more:
EXCLUSIVE – Woman, 38, whose undiagnosed Lyme disease left her ‘MINUTES from death’ reveals how plant-based diet nearly DESTROYED her body – before she turned to strict carnivore regimen that completely cured her symptoms
Angela Lerro, 38, from Los Angeles, stopped eating most meat and fish in 2013
She began fainting up to 20 times a day and suffering from anaphylaxis
Angela learned her diet was killing her after being diagnosed with Lyme disease
A woman who was advised to follow a plant-based diet after being diagnosed with breast cancer and having a mastectomy has opened up about how shunning meat almost killed her while she was suffering from undiagnosed Lyme disease.
Angela Lerro, 38, from Los Angeles, stopped eating most meat and fish and lived mainly on vegetables and colorful salad dishes for three years after undergoing surgery in 2013.
But instead of feeling better, she began fainting up to 20 times a day, breaking out in hives and rashes, and suffering from heightened anxiety and anaphylaxis. She became so bloated, she looked pregnant.
The reiki master was told it was post-cancer ailments, but her symptoms were actually caused by undiagnosed Lyme disease, which she’d been unknowingly battling for over 30 years. (See link for article)
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**Comment**
This is quite the journey this poor woman has lived. I pray something within will help someone out there who has barked up every tree but still hasn’t found any answers – or should I say THE answer?
As always, this is not medical advice. Make sure you are working with an experienced Lyme literate doctor. But, as is often the case with Lyme/MSIDS, we simply have to experiment.
Angela went on the “Lion Diet” otherwise known as the “ultimate elimination diet,” to reduce inflammation. Angela believes that ruminant fat, meat, and organs contain the most bioavailable nutrients the body can absorb and use. She states borrelia feed off gluten, grains, and sugar and when they are consumed they create inflammation. When she ditched her low-histamine paleo diet for bison, veal, lamb, and venison many of her symptoms disappeared within three months. She no longer fainted and her mobility improved.
I too have improved dramatically with diet; however, diet really didn’t appear to be a problem until later – after I had treatment for 5 years. Now, could a dietary switch have helped? Possibly, but as you know – it’s nearly impossible at times to distinguish what is doing what. It wasn’t until I developed a very painful Baker’s Cyst and what appeared to be “arthritis” that I got serious about diet. I’m happy to report that I’ve experienced great improvement by ditching gluten, most dairy (except hard cheeses and whipping cream), and trying valiantly to eliminate sugar. That last one is the tough one for me. 🙂
Few people are familiar with the term nightshades, and many will be surprised to learn that consuming foods from this plant group may be contributing to their pain and inflammation
Nightshades belong to the Solanaceae family which includes over 2,000 species. They also include some of the most popular foods consumed today; such as tomatoes, potatoes, all types of peppers, and eggplant. Although not truly nightshades, blueberries, huckleberries, goji berries and ashwaganda all share the same alkaloids which may have inflammation-inducing properties.
The Solanaceae family contains cholinesterase inhibiting glycoalkaloids and steroid alkaloids including, among others, solanine in potato and eggplant, tomatine in tomato, nicotine in tobacco, and capsaicin in garden peppers. The glycoalkaloids in potatoes are known to contribute to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and negatively affect intestinal permeability. (1,2) According to Dr. Marvin Childers, “When these inhibitors accumulate in the body, alone or with other cholinesterase inhibitors such as caffeine or food impurities containing systemic cholinesterase inhibiting pesticides, the result may be a paralytic-like muscle spasm, aches, pains, tenderness, inflammation, and stiff body movements.” (3) These symptoms may dissipate in a few hours or days if ingestion is stopped, based on the sensitivity of the individual, the amount of nightshades consumed on a regular basis and their level of inflammation. However for some heavy consumers of nightshades the process of inflammation and pain reduction can take up to 3 months.
After reading the symptoms associated with nightshade consumption, it is easy to understand why one of the major problems attributed to nightshade is arthritis. Arthritis is also the most common disability in the U.S. (4,5) Statistics from a 2007-2009 study show that doctor diagnosed arthritis affects 49.9 million people in the United States alone (6). Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis affecting more than 20 million people. More than 2 million people are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, the most disabling and painful form of arthritis. Arthritis has no boundaries to gender, race or age, it affects young and old alike. (5, 7) In fact it may be surprising to some that an estimated 294,000 children (age 18 and under), have some form of arthritis. (7) In 2003 the medical cost of arthritis alone was approximately 128 billion annually. (4) Since 1994, disability-related costs for medical care and lost productivity have exceeded an estimated $300 billion annually in the United States, this includes arthritis and other rheumatoid related illness (8) Add to these numbers the report released in 2011 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, where an estimated 116 million adults live with chronic pain, which costs the United States $635 billion annually in health care and lost productivity. (9) So the question is how much of these problems are nightshade related? That is the question some researchers are asking, as they believe that arthritis is often misdiagnosed in people who may in fact be experiencing severe side effects of nightshade consumption.
Many who suffer with arthritis or an arthritis related disease such as lupus, rheumatism, and other musculoskeletal pain disorders, have found that consuming foods from the nightshade family is in fact adversely affecting their health. Norman F. Childers, PhD, founder of the Arthritis Nightshades Research Foundation stated: “Diet appears to be a factor in the etiology of arthritis based on surveys of over 1400 volunteers during a 20-year period. Plants in the drug family, Solanaceae (nightshades) are an important causative factor in arthritis in sensitive people.” (3)
Three month challenge
If you want to know if nightshades negatively affect you, take the three month challenge. Avoid all nightshades for three months. (It’s called a challenge for a reason).Be careful to note the nightshade list, and become a label reader as some homeopathics, prescriptions, over the counter medications as well as numerous processed foods contain nightshades. Prescriptions and over the counter medicines may require a discussion with your pharmacist or a phone call to the manufacturer of your over the counter medicines to determine ingredients.
After three months, begin to reintroduce one nightshade at a time. Take note of any aches, pains, stiffness, and loss of energy, headaches, respiratory problems or any other symptoms. You may find as many others have, that the quality of your daily health will dramatically improve after eliminating nightshades from your diet.
The nightshade list
tomatoes (all varieties, including tomatillos)
potatoes (all varieties, NOT sweet potatoes or yams)
eggplant (aubergine)
okra
peppers (all varieties such as bell pepper, wax pepper, green & red peppers, chili peppers, cayenne, paprika, etc.)
goji berries
tomarillos (a plum-like fruit from Peru)
sorrel
garden huckleberry & blueberries (contain the alkaloids that induce inflammation)
gooseberries
ground cherries
pepino Melon
the homeopathic “Belladonna” [note: this is highly precautionary as homeopathics contain virtually no measurable “active” chemical]
tobacco
paprika
cayenne pepper
Soy sauce made in the U.S. is generally made with genetically modified (GMO) soy beans, which are cut with the nightshade plant Petunia.
The condiments black/white pepper and pepper corns are not nightshades
Other ingredients and products to avoid
Homeopathic remedies containing Belladonna [note: this is highly precautionary as homeopathics contain virtually no measurable “active” chemical]
Prescription and over-the-counter medications containing potato starch as a filler (especially prevalent in sleeping and muscle relaxing medications)
Edible flowers: petunia, chalice vine, day jasmine, angel and devil’s trumpets
Atropine and Scopolamine, used in sleeping pills
Topical medications for pain and inflammation containing capsicum (in cayenne pepper).
Many baking powders contain potato starch
Don’t lick envelopes, many adhesives contain potato starch
Vodka (potatoes used in production)
Read labels carefully because you could be doing everything else right, and still be sabotaged by one small amount of an ingredient.
Never buy a food has that uses the generic term of seasoning or spices…. nightshades may be included in the ingredients.
Learn more about the similarity of tomato lectin with wheat germ lectin (WGA), as well as lectins found in rice and barley:
3. Journal of Neurological and Orthopedic Medical Surgery (1993) 12:227-231.An Apparent Relation of Nightshades (Solanaceae) to Arthritis https://www.noarthritis.com/research.htm
5. Differences in the Prevalence and Impact of Arthritis Among Racial/Ethnic Groups in the United States, National Health Interview Survey, 2002, 2003, and 2006 https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/may/10_0035.htm
After sixteen years of struggling with MCS, Elisha McFarland recovered her health through alternative and natural healing methods. It was this experience that encouraged her to pursue an education in natural health. She has the following designations: Doctor of Naturopathy, Master Herbalist, D.A. Hom., B.S. in Holistic Nutrition, Certified Wholistic Rejuvenist and EFT-ADV. You can visit her website at: https://www.myhealthmaven.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/myhealthmaven
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 